The Gate - Elvish Has Left

Once the fairies calmed down, Lelu covered them up then crawled under the blankets with Stefan and tried to comfort him, he was so full of aches and pain! She could feel his aches through their bond the same way he feels her terror when the memories resurface. Even now with his advancing age taking hold he will wake up when the nightmares return. He will soothe her, calming her back to sleep as he takes her terror as his own, letting her relax and slip back to sleep while he deals with the horrors she faced. Could that be why he's aging? Is it her fault?

At sunset they prepared to head out again. As Carny and Lelu packed up, Orla asked "What's wrong with papa?"

"He's feeling old, he hurts a lot," answered Carny.

"Maybe we can help," said Tana and they opened their cage door and fluttered over to where Stefan was resting, he was leaning up against a tree. He was looking up into the branches remembering the day he met Lelu. The fairies began to flutter over his head and joined hands then began shuddering. Sparkles rained down from under their skirts landing on the rousing marine.

"What are you two doing?" chuckled Stefan as he looked up and wondered where the sparkles originated.

"We're sprinkling you with fairy dust!" giggled Orla.

"Fairy dust comes out of your butt?" he asked.

"Sort of," giggled Tana as she wriggled her hips vigorously causing more sparkles to flutter down on Stefan.

"You're not pooping on me, are you?"

"Nooooo! You're silly poppa, poop doesn't glitter."

"Are you sure you're not peeing on me?"

"EWWWWWW!!!" the fairies cried in unison. "That would be gross!" insisted Orla with a pout and the fairies zipped back to their cage.

"Thank you, girls, he feels better," said Lelu and they packed up, hitched Duck Soup up to the wagon, and started to head further northeast. As they travelled parallel with the edge of the forest, they would use the fairies for Lelu's farseeing eye. Every so often they would stop and let the fairies out. Tana would fly lead and Orla fly on her wing looking for bats and predatory birds and Lelu would watch from afar by focusing on what she knew, Tana. She set her view from behind and above the fairy and that way she could look around for sign of warrior bunnies. Night after night this happened, four or five times a night, never stopping, never loosing hope. Not yet anyhow.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

The moons were at their zenith when Carny walked straight out into the grassland from their campsite. After about a hundred meters she stopped and stared at a shadow on the ground ahead of her. "We're going to have lunch, care to join us?"

The warrior bunnies, Ranse and Cuthbert looked up in shock at a fellow bunny who stared down at them with amusement. "How did you know we were here?" asked Ranse. They had worked hard to camouflage themselves in the dense grass.

"My momma can see far, far away, she told me you were here. We've been riding through the grasslands for weeks looking for you. Join us, I made stew for poppa!" They gave up on staying near the forest close to a month ago when they noticed Stefan's aging and began moving through the grassland hoping to draw the attention of the warrior bunnies they knew were out here.

Over by the wagon a couple of travelers were bent over a pot, beneath it purple and red crystals glowed softly, the crystals never got warm, but their natural radiation caused the iron pot that was sitting on them to heat up, warming up the beeson stew that was gently simmering over the crystals. The couple was an old man and a young-looking elf. "This is my mom and dad!" Carny announced.

"You mean your grandpa and sister don't you?" said Ranse, a natural wiseass.

The young elf burst into tears and ran off into the grasslands while the old man just smiled sadly and tried to follow her but lost energy and leaned against the wagon. "We're looking for a mage," said Carny. "There is a mage out here with a Hutch of Warrior Bunnies. Momma Lelu says the mage can help us, but poppa Stefan says we won't find her in time." Carny fought bravely to hold back the tears as she helped Poppa Stefan into the wagon. "He says I should start looking for a hutch to join, he doesn't want me to be alone after they go."

The two scout bunnies hugged Carny. "We have a mage," said Ranse, the blond bunny.

The green haired bunny, Cuthbert held them tight, "pack up, we can be there by noon."

Lelu was in horrible shape, she'd spent the last month wandering this wild grassland that goes on forever it seems, looking for the mage, wearing out the fairies and all the while she's had to watch Stefan grow older and weaker with each breath. All she wanted to do now was to lay in the bed of the wagon with Stefan and hold him as he slowly fades away and to go with him.

She was kneeling in the long grass weeping when Carny came up. "Momma, come on, my friends have a mage. They said she can help us." She took Lelu by the hand, not the right hand, which was reserved for Stefan, but the left hand. "Come on momma, pappa's in the wagon waiting for us," Carny was in shock too, while Stefan's body seemed to age decades in their weeks of searching, Lelu's mind seemed to reflect Stefan's age. Caring for these two had worn Carny out and shattered her heart, but it's a labor of love and she's not giving up.

Duck Soup was happy to get moving, she doesn't like standing in one spot, and now there were new passengers to impress with her horsepower. Ranse and Cuthbert sat on the wagon's seat with Carny seated between them, Stefan and Lelu lay in the back snuggled together as they softly drifted off toward the end.

The sun was starting to peek above the eastern horizon, Stefan and Lelu liked to stop and have their tea about now then bed down, usually, but today they didn't say a word. Carny was worried but when she looked back at them, they were curled up in each other's arms, whispering to each other. Even Duck Soup didn't want to stop. She was a creature of habit and had gotten used to stopping at sunrise but today there were two more Warrior Bunnies to pull so something must be up.

Cuthbert looked back at their charges, she was interested in any leftover stew but as the sun came up she finally got a good look at Carny's "parents" and gasped. She nudged Ranse who was sitting on the other side of Carny and was starting to fall asleep. "Don't," mumbled Ranse who was half awake.

"Ranse!" hissed Cuthbert, "Look!"

Ranse gave a cursory glance over her shoulder and was about to say "So what?" when a little something she saw set off an alarm in her head. She almost broke her neck by turning to look back as fast as she did. There was an old human man lying on his side, and a young elven girl, barely a day over 100 curled up behind him, whispering to him, he would occasionally smile as she whispered to him, and on their cheeks bright as day to a Warrior Bunny was the bright red lipstick Mark of The Queen, a member of the Royal family. As they watched, Stefan rolled over to face Lelu and they could see a gold lipstick print on his other cheek. "He's a warrior," gasped Cuthbert.

"They both are, knights of the Bunny Empire are what Aunt Mary called them," said Carny.

Ranse grasped Carny's shoulder and demanded, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I thought you knew!" Carny said, "how many humans are married to an elf?"

"I saw him in Nangda just a couple of months ago," said Cuthbert. "Wasn't he with a troll?"

"That's my mom you're talking about," snarled Carny. "She was knighted by Princess Pina last month, first elf knighted by the Empire, ever. First green man ever knighted by the empire too, and Aunt Mary was there."

"Aunt Mary?" asked Ranse. She grabbed Carny by the chin and turned her face side to side, and there it was, hidden by a spit curl by her right ear, the red lipstick mark of the Queen. Ranse suddenly realized that she and Cuthbert were sitting on a wagon load of royalty.

"Mary...Atchi?" gasped Cuthbert. Cuthbert knew Queen Mary, she knew the Queen's address of "Hiya boys," was just a ruse to put potential threats to rest while she observed every single member of the audience. Mary was sharp as a tack, ruthless as a shark, and bent on restoring the Warrior Bunnies to their rightful place on the Falmart continent. She wants to do it while making friends with the Empire and the Green Men, but if necessary, she'll do it over their rotting corpses.

Carny nodded her head. "Aunt Mary adopted me when I was a kit."

"Can't you go any faster?" begged Cuthbert. She did not want to be the bunny to allow the only human to carry the Mark of The Queen to die on her watch.

"Duck Soup can gallop if you want," said Carny, "but papa, he's so frail..."

Ranse hopped off the wagon, "I'll go let them know you're inbound." With a bounce she took off like a rocket, sprinting faster and farther than possible for a human using every bit of speed that the Warrior Bunnies are famous for. She arrived at the hutch within an hour and let the warriors know what was happening. Within minutes the entire hutch was in an uproar, an outsider, a human is coming to the hutch to die? And Ranse said he bears the Mark of The Queen? Ranse must be insane or delusional. Only one human bears the mark of the queen and he's nowhere near as old as Ranse says.

The sun was high in the sky when the cry of "Here they come," came from a guard. Her only weapon was a long stick whittled to a point, the empire denied the Warrior Bunnies metal weapons and longbows. She saw Duck Soup start up the incline to the rise where the hutch was settled. Before long the horse and cart came into a warrior bunny settlement known as a hutch, and all the bunnies turned out when the horse drawn wagon arrived. "Help us!" cried Cuthbert as she jumped off the still moving wagon and ran to the rear of the wagon.

Ranse came running with a blanket, "How are they?"

"They're alive," called Cuthbert, "but I don't know if they'll last much longer... Oh gods, I'm sorry Carny."

Hearing Cuthbert's assessment Carny dropped to her knees in despair. "Help," the little bunny gasped, "please help."

"They got the marks!" gasped an onlooker, "They have the Queen's Mark!" she cried. This brought the entire population of the hutch running, they all knew about the Queen's Mark, but they'd never seen it before. There are seven different marks, and all three passengers in the wagon have the red mark, recognition of outstanding service to the Bunnies rewarded by entry into the royal family, and two wear gold, the defender of the Bunnies.

Fashioning stretchers out of two wool blankets, the warrior bunnies lifted the semi-conscious couple from the bed of the wagon and gently began to carry them to the clinic hut. Carny walked next to Stefan weeping, "Wake up poppa, I'm right here poppa." They walked past the mage, an ancient bunny who stood stoically watching the procession, and then they brought the elf maiden. For the first time since the mage joined the hutch the mage displayed any emotion.

"Halt!" the wizen old mage cried. She slowly walked up to the stretcher holding the elf. The shiny chrome hair, the golden eye, the perfect white gold skin. The mage reached out and ran her dried, wrinkled fingers through that chrome-colored hair and whispered, "Lelu."

Hearing her name Lelu looked up with those mis-matched, unseeing eyes and begged, "help him! I can barely feel him."

"Take them to my hut," ordered the mage. The hut was further away but the warrior bunnies followed the mage's command and dropped off the improvised stretchers in her hut. "Ok, everyone out demanded the mage. After the bunnies left the mage turned and saw that Carny was still there, she was seated between the couple, holding their hands. "I need everyone to go."

"No, I'm with them. If they stay, I stay, if they go, I go." Carny pulled out a razor-sharp steel knife and laid it within easy reach.

"Fine," huffed the ancient warrior bunny. "Move up there," she gestured to a stool in the corner. She slowly knelt between Lelu and Stefan and took Lelu's left hand in hers, avoiding the twisted and clearly injured right hand. "Lelu honey, what is happening?"

Lelu's eyes fluttered open, and she looked at the mage a few times and shook her head. "Layla?" she gasped weakly. Carny looked and the mage was someone else... but she blinked, and she saw a wizen old warrior bunny.

"Lelu, what happened?" asked the mage.

"My man, he's going, and I follow..." Lelu said softly then drifted off again.

The mage was suddenly full of fire and anger. She whirled and glared at Carny. "You! Rabbit! What is going on here?"

"I don't know!" Carny cried out, "They were fine, and we came to look for you and he started getting old, and she started getting weak and I can't help them. I want to go with them toooo," the distraught bunny's face screwed up and suddenly the flood gates opened. A month of watching her parents slipping away left Carny an emotional wreck. The thought of their leaving without her was too much to bear. Loud, heartbreaking sobs echoed through the mage's house as the sorrow of the broken bunny was let loose.

Carny's crying was getting on the mage's nerves, she was of no use to her, but the mage couldn't just throw Carny out. "Sleep!" said the mage softly and Carny slid off her stool onto the floor and began snoring gently.

"Are they going to be ok?" a tiny voice asked.

"Yeah, can you fix them?" said a different tiny voice.

The mage looked around the room and found that someone set a fairy cage on the table nearby. "Do they belong to you two?" asked the mage. Ownership is a two-way street with fairies, they belong to you, but in turn you belong to them. Both fairies nodded their heads so vigorously that fairy dust sparkled and fell from their hair. A silly thought came to the mage, it was crazy, it was insane, it was impossible, but she had to ask. "You wouldn't know if they were bonded to each other, wouldn't you?"

Orla nodded, "Uh huh."

"Oh yes! All three of them!" said Tana cheerily.

The mage squinted at the fairies and snarled, "What do you mean all THREE of them?"

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Carny was practically useless all week long, but the mage was able to give her small tasks that she could do like cleaning the house or making meals, and as long as Carny could see Stefan and Lelu, she did the tasks she was assigned. The mage also created an easy to swallow liquid meal that will keep the couple alive as they slept. Even Carny drank it because she often refused to eat solid food. The mage realized that if she didn't come up with something soon, she was going to lose all three of them. She gathered her acolytes and to her one evening and gave them the bad news. "I've tried everything, but nothing is working. I can keep them on the edge of death, I can keep their bodies alive, but healing is out of my grasp."

Stefan and Lelu lay side by side on a soft sleeping pallet that was brought into the mage's hut, Carny sat next to them, her eyes were closed, a tear occasionally rolled down a cheek that ached from crying, Stefan looks like if he's not dead, he should be, he looked centuries old, while Lelu looked like the equivalent of an elven teen. "How are you keeping them alive?" asked Phrito, a tall, slim warrior bunny. Her wombmate sister, Prindle, leaned over and gave Carny a kiss on the cheek. Her skin was salty with dried tears.

The mage just shrugged. "I give them food, such as it is, and water. I clean them and keep them warm." She ran her fingers through Stefan's shock white hair then Lelu's luxurious metallic chrome locks. "I honestly have no idea what is keeping him alive... I think she is doing it."

The leader of the hutch, Tesson Culp, a bunny nearly as old in appearance as the mage, handed her cane to the bunny at her left elbow then bent to touch first Lelu, then Stefan. Finally, she caressed Carny's sorrow filled face then rose with the help of the bucks at her sides. "So that is it? We just watch them die?" She sneered. "This must be some human magic that the green men brought with them."

The mage shook her head, "No, wise one. The green men have tools that look like magic, but in truth they have no magic at all. This I believe is elven in origin. Their fairies told me that they have been bewitched by an elven enthrallment not seen in centuries." Tana and Orla nodded as they fluttered over the sleeping couple. The mage took a deep breath and said, "I want to take them to Vinnofri and request assistance from an elven mage." She waited in fear of reprisal. Hidden in the Unnamed Mountains, protected by marvelous and deadly traps created by the dwarves long before elves and humans ever stepped foot on Falmart, Vinnofri was the last great elven city. Rumors abound, but most people believe that Vinnofri is now an empty shell, populated only by ghosts and fairies. People like Tesson Culp and the mage know better.

Tesson thought about it then finally said in her gravelly voice, "Is there a chance of this, whatever it is, spreading to us?"

Just then Carny crawled up on the bed and snuggled down between Stefan and Lelu and said, "Poppa is looking for me."

The mage's face became deeply concerned, Carny had been saying "Momma wants something" or "Poppa needs me" more and more over the past week. Something must be going on between the three of them and she needs to figure out what that is. "I don't know for sure," said the mage, "I don't know if it is race or species specific. I had a guess that it didn't affect bunny-kind, but I think little Carny just proved that guess wrong."

The hutch leader became concerned. "Go to Vinnofri. Take whatever you need." Tesson Culp remembered when Carny was orphaned, her mother and sisters were killed in a goblin attack, the poor little thing was barely old enough to walk and she was left alone in a field for three days, they almost lost her then. Mary Atchi dropped everything to take on saving the poor dear and although she's queen now with many responsibilities, she will drop everything for one of her kits if needed. With the political atmosphere of Falmart in such an uproar Tesson wants the queen to be able to concentrate on all warrior bunnies without distraction.

"I think I will need..." but Tesson held up a hand stopping the mage.

"You've been with us a long time, I think you understand us now," said Tesson. "Go, save my bunny, take everything that you need, and if we meet again, it will be without masks." The two crones hugged, then Tesson departed with a final look at the sleeping family.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

The mage departed for Vinnofri a few days later with the sleeping family in a larger wagon pulled by two horses. Joining Duck Soup was a second mare named Erie, but in one of her wakeful periods Carny renamed her Cocoanut, "because poppa likes that name better than Erie." The mage was joined by two adventurous demi-humans, Glencove and Jolietta. Jolietta DaBers was a young and excitable cat girl with long pink hair, brown ears and tail and large breasts. She is good at whatever tasks she is given, but occasionally needs encouragement to keep her focused on the task, otherwise she is humorous and self-confident. Glencove Chiton was an older and more serious fox girl, she is tall and extremely slender with short dark green hair, red tipped with white ears, and a red tipped with white tail. Both were acolytes of the mage and the mage trusted them with any order she could give them.

The new wagon has a spring suspension and was a smoother ride so they could move faster when on even ground. Halfway through the first day Carny woke up. She was groggy and weak, but she seemed oddly happy. "Momma says I'm going to a better place," she smiled. But the mage, Glencove, and Jolietta were worried about her. "Going to a better place" struck a nervous chord with them.